Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Chet F. Lesniak

Abstract

Turnover continues to be a problem for residential settings that provide services to intellectually–developmentally disabled (IDD) individuals in the United States. The annual turnover rate in residential facilities serving IDD individuals is 45%. Close to 35% of direct support professionals (DSPs) leave their positions in fewer than 6 months and 22% within 6–12 months. Previous studies of healthcare nurses working in hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare settings have found that different factors, such as stress, autonomy, or lack of recognition, contribute to turnover. These factors have not been studied in DSPs working in residential facilities. This quantitative, multiple logistic regression analysis aimed to find if a relationship existed between the independent variables of independence, stress, and employee recognition and the dependent variable turnover in 89 residential settings supporting IDD individuals. The results from this study indicated no statistical significance between stress autonomy, recognition, and turnover in residential settings, demonstrating that the results do not support preceding research regarding stress, autonomy, recognition, and turnover as possible factors for turnover in those facilities. This study suggested that Kalleberg's theory of job satisfaction cannot be solely attributed to intrinsic perceptions of DSPs working in residential facilities. The study suggested that further research is needed to understand how stress, autonomy, and recognition may influence turnover in residential facilities for IDD individuals. The potential positive social change impact of the current study is to bring to the attention of human services agencies that DSPs’ perceptions influence employee turnover, which affects their services for IDD individuals.

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